Rendell, Blatstein, High Finance, and the Tangled Tale of the Philadelphia Media Network

phunnyphilly — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:23:07 +0000

In a slightly convoluted story (though, admittedly it IS convoluted), The Naked Philadelphian gives some justification for the recent snub of Bart Blatstein’s group in its attempt to purchase Philadelphia Media Network. The scuttlebutt is that a dislike of Raymond Perelman and his bad business practices are at the heart of the strange dealings. However, Naked’s Laura Goldman implies that Roger Altman has his eye on a cabinet position with the Obama administration and thinks Ed Rendell can get him some extra added traction. (It may be a long shot for Altman, as Wall Street bankers are not that popular these days, Obama would have to let Timothy Geithner go, and there are still a number of other candidates to contend with before Altman had a shot at Treasury.)

Philadelphia Media Network has hired Altman’s firm, Evercore Partners, to broker the sale. One of the current PMN owners, Angelo Gordon, is apparently eager to unload the entity he bought at auction in 2010. Alden Global is another owner whose CEO ostensibly has a bad business beef with Raymond Perelman, who claims HE was prevented from bidding on the media group (Ray was part of Bart’s homegrown group and made an unsuccessful attempt to buy PMN last time around).

Ed Rendell still maintains that he is just doing good for the city and its economy. He does not appear to be fronting any money in this venture, even though he is the frontman for his group. He also says he had nothing to do with the recent censorship debacle at the Daily News. Laura Goldman intimates that was also partly Evercore’s doing because they don’t believe Bart is a big enough player nationally so they froze him out.

There are more than a few local journalists who are suspect of Rendell’s claimed civic mindedness because his investor group includes people who are highly politically connected. Ed emphasizes his desire to keep Philly journalism independent and even spoke of erecting a “fire wall” between management and the day-to-day reporting.

We suspect this story will continue to be front page news — provided the local media continues to cover it and they can still afford to print a front page…

Talk about a media circus....geez!

Mayor Nutter is Mad Popular! Crime, not so much…

phunnyphilly — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:37:59 +0000

Yesterday’s Metro had a pretty interesting quote from the Honorable Mr. Nutter….

When you google “crazy ass,” you get 6,920,000 results! That’s CRAZY! At least the mayor should get props for using popular slang in analyzing our current crime conditions. Hey, what about his crazy ass offer of $20,000 for witnesses to put their lives on the line? I know we like gambling in this town, but the odds of surviving snitching are a little too long without true witness protection….

How about pointing the finger at some other crazy ass people – like the rube politicians in Harrisburg who won’t let us make our own gun laws? I realize that does nothing about wackos who have a “right” to carry loaded firearms, but maybe we could control things just a little bit better with locally sensible gun laws.

It's Always Phunny in Philadelphia

Rendell, Blatstein, High Finance, and the Tangled Tale of the Philadelphia Media Network

Mayor Nutter is Mad Popular! Crime, not so much…